Q: Mac Pro locks up, Watchdog Timeout Spin report?

I have this exact same issue with a 4,1 MacPro  and same 4870 ATI card.

Another Late 2009 27" iMac (ATI Radeon HD 4850, 512MB) user here with the same issue... in fact I found this thread by searching for "watchdogd[201]".  Unfortunately, I've been having the issue for a couple years now — almost always while using Safari but usually with different errors.  The only constant is that there is usually a webkit mention.   Other than this issue (which undeniably is a big one when it freezes everything with a ton of windows open), the computer was a beast and withstood years of graphics, video and audio work.

Same problem here. Mid-2014 Retina MacBook Pro 15" with Nvidia graphics running 10.11.4 and  now 10.11.5. Complete system freeze every other day (mostly while using Safari). OS update to 10.11.5 didn't help. System logfile shows WatchDog complaining about "Window Server" not responding. I can still log in to my MacBook using SSH from another machine. Trying to send the KILL-signal to the window server-process does nothing at all. Calling shutdown doesn't do anything, either.

If using Wi-Fi, be certain that you have selected IPv4 on the TCP-IP configuration page, and that IPv6 is set to "Link-local Only" or "off". This setting applies to almost ALL ordinary Home or small office setups, unless you have a very unusual network.

Otherwise, this is most likely to be a problem with your graphics Hardware failing to report in. On a Mac with replaceable graphics card, a replacement card should be substituted..

I've had this problem for at least 3 major releases of OS X, in my case a 2009 Mac Pro and 4870 as so many others have. Always in safari. Always some variation of windowserver locking up.

I'm going to have to disagree with some of the opinions here. It is not likely a hardware problem. There are too many variations of hardware and GPUs mentioned here even though it seems more common on my combo. The problem mostly occurs in Safari. It feels more like some kind of threading issue involving a kernel extension that locks up windowserver. It could be something from Apple or a third party.

At one point I thought it was this Mac's logitech mouse (com.Logitech.Control Center.HID Driver) as it never happens to me on my other macs that have a Magic Mouse or just the trackpad. But I have no really good proof.

The randomness (other than involving Safari which of course updates the screen a lot) makes it seem more like something very low level that we all have in common. Maybe something not obvious.

Same issue here. iMac 27 late 2009 - ATI 4850 512Mb.

I ran the apple diagnostics and it only did exactly the same thing while testing the memory. I have 16GB so I will try pulling out 2 modules and see if the same happens with 8GB.

I used ASD EFI 3S138 and ASD OS 3S138.

It's a good machine and I don't need anything more powerful than this. Pretty sad if I just have to throw it away.

You might want to start your own post since this one is from 2015. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.

I see I am not the only one who's been having this issue for a while, although it's discouraging the nobody has reported any relief after over a year--that, more than anything else, makes me think "hardware problem".

In my case, I can't definitively point to Safari (since it's always open), but my late-2009 27" iMac w/Radeon HD 4850 does the same thing--about once every 3-5 days the UI will stop responding to input.  In addition to daily use, the thing is on 24/7 as a backup server, and it sometimes hangs while I'm not in front of it and the screen is dark.  The computer itself hasn't crashed--the mouse cursor still moves, I can put it to sleep with the power button or by waiting, and I can SSH into it.

But, the windowserver process is stuck (as in "stuck" according to a top command while ssh'ing in), can't be killed remotely (no surprise, since it's stuck), and my logs (after reboot) show the "watchdogd: ...com.apple.WindowServer ... unresponsive" messages.  I don't know how to interpret the .spin logs automatically generated by it.

I started having the problem under 10.10, figured maybe it was a bad drive so I replaced the stock one with an SSD and did a fresh OS install and migration, didn't help, updated to 10.11, also didn't help.

Given the number of people reporting it, and its resistance to OS updates, it sure sounds like a hardware problem, which is what I'd been assuming.

It's just weird, because it's not like any GPU failure I've ever seen--every other Mac with a bad GPU will either hang on boot, go to a grey screen, or display graphical corruption before finally panic-ing.  On this, there are absolutely no graphics glitches, the computer functions perfectly, and even after WindowServer hangs there are no glitches and the mouse still draws as expected.  It's also not progressive--it hasn't gotten any worse in at least a year of daily use and 24/7 power-on.

I hate to have to say it again, but some posters seem to be in denial about this issue.

When the watchdog timer fires, and rats out windowserver as swallowing a process and never responding, you almost certainly have a Graphics Hardware problem.

Sorry, but I strongly disagree with you. As others have pointed out this happens on a broad range of video cards, most often in Safari, and on OS X 10.9.x and higher.

I'm in the same situation: MacBook Pro 15" Retina, currently on 10.11.5. These freezes started after upgrading to 10.9 IIRC. Initially I noticed it as the machine not coming back from sleep and having to force a shutdown. After time I've found out that it's always WindowServer dying and not replying to keyboard/mouse/lid open events.

This is just NOT a hardware issue.

I noted that hardware seemed most likely given the resistance to reinstalls and that no solution has been suggested--my intent was mostly to offer another data point with explanation of everything I'd tried for the reference of others searching (and to opine how oddly different it is from the kind of GPU failure I'm familiar with).

That said, it happens I have an opportunity to do about as good of a test as possible to confirm it is hardware.

We have a second iMac at work identical to the one I'm having problems with--same model, same configuration, purchased from the same place at the same time--that I know is not having this issue, and just became available. I'm going to swap the drive from mine into it some time in the next couple days and see what happens.

If it stops hanging, then there's no way it could be anything but hardware, and I'll call that a definitive answer.

Well this is interesting.

I did the following test to confirm this problem (or at least my version thereof):  We have two identical iMacs purchased at the same time, one of which (mine) was exhibiting these windowserver hangs about once a week and the other of which, to my knowledge at least, was fine.  I cracked both open and swapped the hard drive from the problem machine to the good one and started using it.

That is, this is an apparently known-good iMac of identical configuration with only two changes:  The SSD and OS/user data from a known-bad machine swapped in.

I was about to declare it fixed and hardware-related until, after about ten days of use, I got the same hang.

So there are only three possibilities:  1) Both of these computers are having the same GPU failure simultaneously and the user of the second one just never noticed.  2) The problem is something in software.  3) The problem is actually being caused by the hard drive.

#3 is extremely unlikely because it persisted even after I replaced the stock drive with a 3rd party SSD, leaving only #1 and #2 as realistic possibilities.

I am going to install a completely fresh OS on the second computer and leave it running to see if it hangs, which should provide the data point necessary to narrow it down to the actual cause.

Thanks for that HD swap experiment. It's a data point that we can add to several others here as we continue to feel around in the dark for a cause. While Apple, with reams of crash data, sits on its hands.

Today the Mac froze again and the logs include three 'Event: service progress watchdog' entries. I use an iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009) 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 12 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 and an ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB. The system/crash logs are mystifying. Inevitably after an hour+ checking my logs and then the forums, I go back to work - resigned to getting caught out again. It's been happening at least since 10.9.

I was mousing in Safari when it froze. In fact it only freezes when I am using my mouse (Logitech M-BZ105A with Logitech Control Center Daemon running). I can't yet say it's only happening in Safari, but today did I suspect that Safari is involved. Yet the site I was mousing used few scripts.

I have a host of other processes running, including 1Password, Dropbox, Fantastical, Alfred 2, Cobook, DRagondrop, Powermate, Fastscripts, and Little Snitch. Unfortunately, when it strikes I also have a bunch of Firefox windows open too.

I've closed Safari, Dropbox and Dragondrop to see if/when it recurs. I'll keep a brief log of my own when it next happens.

I've got an late 2010 iMac with an ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB video card. It now happens in Sierra as well.

I'm going to switch to Firefox on this machine, to see if it is bug caused by Safari.

I've read this thread, and I suspect it is hardware related, since my Mac Mini and MacBook Pro have never experienced this problem.

An update on my situation. I replaced my video card with a flashed Nvidia GeForce 780 and the problem is completely solved.  As I've read in many other threads, it's a video card incompatibility issue with the stock card.